ShrimpLok

Yeah it works out well for them. In terms of Big Scottish entry I wonder if eventually the change proposed might be to keep a place for Junior Cup winner but drop the Superleague places. That would be parity with the amateurs and reflect the reduced status of the East Superleague.

I specifically put north east in lower case to mean the clubs were generally further from the Forth Bridge. But if you prefer to get into pedantically referring to either the NE Fife Parliamentary Constituency or the North East Fife Area Committee then of course it currently has three Junior clubs. I presume you forgot about poor Newburgh. The main point being that it wasn’t even short hops over the bridge left for Fauldhouse but trips right up the A92 to far away Fife.

Self inflicted wound true. But if East region want to keep the remaining West Lothian clubs they may feel its worth running a 14 - 12 - 10 next season.

The only issue with the three leagues of 12 is it leaves the Superleague very northern with 6 north of Tay clubs and four north east Fife clubs. Leaving it as 14 might make the remaining West Lothian clubs feel a bit less isolated as otherwise it’s a pretty horrible looking League for Fauldhouse and Pumpherston.

Of course for three seasons from 1992-95 the non league Unibond (NPL) Division One had the unique status of having teams from three countries in it with Gretna as well as Caernarfon Town from Wales. Colwyn Bay got promoted the year before Gretna joined and Caernarfon joined the League of Wales a few years before Gretna joined the Scottish leagues.

When I looked at it the best solution looked to be 14 in the Superleague (relegating Kirriemuir and promoting Dundee North End and Pumpherston. You’d then move Newburgh and Lochore to a 10 team south district leaving a 12 team north district.

Heriot-Watt was in Currie rural district of Midlothian so was outside the old Edinburgh city boundaries. Selkirk and Gala would both be potential future Selkirkshire EoS clubs of course. Galashiels was split between Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire by the Gala Water but Netherdale is south of the river so in Selkirkshire. Vale of Leithen would be Peeblesshire. Kinrossshire, Buteshire and Zetland are the only counties that have never had a Senior club. Kincardineshire has been without a Senior Club since Cove went nomadic but should be regaining them next season.

It doesn’t really apply to many clubs anyway. If you’re a district level club thinking of leaving now, you’re probably further from meeting licensing criteria, you’ll have West Lothian / Fife games this year rather than 6 trips to Tayside and if you move in 2019 it will be to a local league with less travelling and less likelihood of thumpings by the bigger teams. So you may as well hang on for a year. Equally die hards like Whitburn and Bathgate won’t move until the writing isn’t very firmly on the wall. So really the only clubs left who might have a reason for a late application are Fauldhouse, Glenrothes, Thornton and Kennoway. Presumably Thornton at their Pie pricing meeting at least mentioned the Pyramid in passing so you’d think they won’t change their minds either.

That would work too but it’s extra games you don’t need to play. Either way it seems sensible to have some sort of full ranking system as it won’t be clear until after the League 2 playoff how many teams will be in the following years EoS so adjustments may be needed right down the table.

There’s cups to fit in as well. It’s only for one season. Might be a few more applicants yet to get it up to 14 team leagues as well.

As 13 team leagues will only give a 24 game season there is flexibility to have a full playoff at the end to rank all clubs 1-39. Home and Away it would be an extra 4 games each to play the other clubs in the same position or just 2 games each extra with one home and one away game.

I suspect if applications were at least in before the AGM they could be considered by the other clubs. In everyone’s interest to sort it out quickly but if there are clubs wanting to join better to get them in this year, especially the better clubs so future years don’t suffer the one sided games issue.

I’ve got sympathy for those who left and those who are left behind. There’s been so many stories floating around it’s been very hard for people to decide what is best. I wish that TJ had engaged with the pyramid and that there had been an agreed merger so no one was left with uncertainty. But that’s not what happened and in the end each club has to make a decision they feel is best for their future. It’s sad but an inevitable consequence of the way the junior leadership has failed to engage with the pyramid and in the end resorted to outright lies and threats to try and stop clubs from leaving.

To be fair his club have been promised they’ll get Tier 6 entry as a Junior club, SuperDooper League in 2019, licensing will be suspended for defectors and then advised not to go EoS as applications were going to be refused by EoS and/or SFA and anyone who applied would then be banned from re-entering the juniors and/or sued by SJFA for not giving sufficient notice. Now it turns out none of that was true and the expected reward for promotion of games against Lithgae and Bo’ness is replaced by 6 trips over the Tay Bridge I think you’re entitled to be pissed off with the story you’ve been told.

Nothing official but suspect given they’re at 3 x 13 at the moment they’d be happy enough to have a few more clubs as 3 x 14 clubs would be easier to schedule. Worth asking the question to EOS secretary.

Presumably they'll go with 13 groups of 3, 13 group winners to League Cup main draw with 3 teams getting a bye to the Quarter Finals. Makes sense to allow teams matches against local rivals who don't end up in the same section.

If EoS has 39 members next year that means they outnumber the East Region Juniors will only have 36, of which 20 are within the Lowland League catchment and 16 in the Highland League catchment.

At 39 they’ve passed the point where 3 Leagues are definitely needed so no incentive to restrict further applications and stay at two leagues. Any stragglers will need to get a move on and apply before the AGM though.

The solution for North of Scotland needs to involve: Opportunities for promotion to Highland League Keeping travel down as much as possible for small north and west clubs Opportunity for better standard of opposition for bigger Tayside and Aberdeen clubs Allow clubs to decline promotion to avoid clubs going beyond their means I think if you had North Caledonian League as a slightly expanded Tier 6 league to cover all non Highland League teas in the Highland Local Authority area (Nairn St Ninian, any future Inverness based teams) in that would work for Fort William if they were relegated from Highland League. Champions can voluntarily request promotion to Highland League (via a play off?) You could then have an expanded North Superleague / Highland League 2 (with an automatic promotion place to HL for licensed clubs with floodlights) covering north of Tay clubs and 2 divisions below it covering Moray / Aberdeenshire and Angus / Kincardineshire. Lower league Aberdeen based clubs could move between the two Tier 7 leagues to maintain balance. Give Luncarty, Blairgowrie, Coupar Angus and Tayport the choice of whether to choose the LL or HL regions as they are edge cases that may prefer to remain with neighbouring clubs rather than enforcing a strict north / south split.

Thing is there isn't any amateur (as in SAFA) league for Fort William to join. North Caledonian League and North juniors lower divisions are effectively the amateur leagues for the Highlands. A bit of summer welfare football as well but its not like there is a thriving SAFA league of 20 West Highland Football teams for Fort William to join. They're just unfortunately a very long way from anyone else who plays football.

Put down your keyboards, that’s your deadline gone.

I suspect the better teams would want to be able to access a league at higher level that includes Aberdeen based teams. But I wonder if it might end up casting Moray and Nairn teams off towards the NCL?

Look. It’s the same as the EOS. Existing structures aren’t in the system so the new structure will be whatever clubs want. If there is demand for a Highland wide Tier 6 then that could happen but no one can force the Tayside sides to join the north Juniors if they’d rather stay on Tayside at Tier 6.

So long as the clubs affiliate to the SJFA and Reinstatement exists the NRJFA Super league is not a Tier 6 SFA Pyramid League. There are 16 East Region clubs north of the Tay. If the boundary were tweaked you could maybe add in a few more from Perth and maybe Tayport and Newburgh from Fife to get 20 or so clubs. North Region juniors look likely to be maximum 32 clubs next season so there isn’t a huge difference between the setups.

It would if they set it up now because there is no Tier 6 League north of the Tay. Who could complain if Tayside clubs parked their Tank on that lawn? No one as there isn’t an alternative league already established except the NCL which isn’t going to want Tayside applicants. I’m not saying I think it will happen but there is no reason it couldn’t.